Approved Faculty Senate Minutes
November 17, 2008
Attending Senators: Cody Bustamante, Al Case, Anne Chambers, Terry DeHay, Sherry Ettlich, Paul French, Bill Hughes, Gerry McCain, Maggie McClellan, Emily Miller-Francisco, Donna Mills, Mada Morgan, Doyne Mraz, Pete Nordquist, Greg Pleva, Dan Rubenson, Kay Sagmiller, Ellen Siem, Robin Strangfield, Steve Thorpe, Jody Waters, Taylor York (student senator).
Absent: John Roden
Visitors: Prakash Chenjeri, Mary Cullinan, Jonathan Eldridge, William Greene, YoungHee Kim, James Klein, Craig Morris, Laura O’Bryon, John Sollinger, Paul Steinle
Meeting opened: 4:04pm
Rubenson: Apologies for no coffee – catering mix-up.
Agenda:
1. Approval of minutes from November 3, 2008
Moved by DeHay, 2nd by Thorpe. Carried. None opposed. Abstentions: Bustamante, Strangfield
2. Announcements None
3. Comments from President Cullinan
Good news and good press this week:
§ Enrollment up 5.1%. Also NESE data shows us moving up in relation to our peer institutions. Tremendous credit goes to faculty working with students all over campus.
§ Older news is that we’ve been named by EPA as one of 20 greenest institutions in US.
§ Good news that our student Brianne Sharman recently won $250,000 (on TV show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire)
Wonderful things going on and I’m delighted at how the year has begun.
I’ll remind you that we are in midst of many planning processes which will converge inWinter and Spring. MAP is part of this, and the branding process is still going on. We’ll hear from Elizabeth Scarborough on 3rd Dec. All this planning is coming together and my hope is to have a good strategic plan for the campus by the end of the year.
Just met with strategic planning group, and we’ll hold an event on campus Dec. 19th. I know many of you will be gone, but if here, this will be an opportunity to look at the preliminary vision for the university, and we’d like faculty input. There will be other opportunities for input during winter and spring, with meetings, web options, etc.
So, lots of good news, though the bad news is the economy. We’ll hear our revenue forecast this Wednesday, and expect it will not be good. This Friday I will have a phone conference with the Chancellor, and may know more then. For now, all we know is we are in better shape than some states, worse than some others.
Questions:
Thorpe: In a difficult budget situation such as this, does OUS present to the legislature some possibilities, or do we just wait and let them tell us?
Mary Cullinan: OUS has been asked to put forward scenarios for consideration. This is an overall look, of the sort “if you cut us this much in funding, we’ll have to cut so many sections.” The system does respond to requests and will be doing so soon. At this point, neither the system nor legislature has asked for information from individual campuses.
Thorpe: (following up) Does the OUS system or legislature ever talk about closing a campus, to deal with the fact that there are insufficient funds to support all?
Mary Cullinan: You know more than I do about that.
Rubenson: They tend to not talk about the newest and most expensive campus.
Thorpe: Bend.
Mary Cullinan: It’s doing so badly.
Ettlich: Eastern has been mentioned every time there are financial problems. Western and Southern have been mentioned in the past too.
Thorpe: That doesn’t make sense
4. Comments from Provost Klein
We’ll hold our Master Academic Planning summit on 15th December. We’ve asked all dept chairs to bring two faculty per dept, hoping for 40-50 people at summit. First few sessions involve break- outs and then we’ll move on to discuss the Master Academic Plan itself. Refreshments provided, incl. continental breakfast, lunch, afternoon snacks. Let dept chair know if you can take part. Important work, we’re charting our direction for next five years. Encourage you to join in, important we have good representation.
McClellan: Can more than 2 faculty come per dept?
Klein: There is a limit on the room size, and our budget.
Mraz: What kind of realistic planning can be done with the economic situation so bad?
Klein: We are building a new SOU that is more financially sustainable. We are not completely hamstrung. We are generating new resources, including self-support; we’ll report on these at a later date.
5. AC Report from Terry DeHay
We have continued to talk about the Face of the Cube, also a steering committee for MAP. The Provost talked about community college articulation and ways to increase recruitment.
Klein: Paul Steinle organized that, so he can give more detail.
Steinle: Actually, Scott Morrell organized it, credit to him. We had about 40 people, most depts. were represented. The new building provided a great environment, very positive, seeing people in the halls, encouraged camaraderie. Elementary Education and Business programs are prominent. We have 600 former RCC students here at SOU, so you can see the importance of this cooperation. Conversations are now going on, with new cooperative ventures to be decided by end of February.
Thorpe: There is lots of activity in the Higher Ed Center, even on Saturday, grad courses of several sorts going on, food service is open, very active. And during the week of Jeff Merkley meeting, there were also articulation meetings, classes, a beehive of activity, very positive feeling.
6. Student Senate Report
Taylor York: This weekend was the NW Student Leadership Conference. We sent half of our senate up to PSU, many presented at workshops, exhausting but fun and productive. Re: the committees I mentioned last time, not total agreement, so the list is being finalized still and I’ll let you know. We are continuing our campaign brainstorming process. The most favored are the family housing situation, safe ride, gender inclusive housing, ASSOU profile and bylaws. Mission and values, which we updated a week or two ago, are being edited now.
Discussion Items
7. Course Proposals from University Studies
Morgan: Prakash will give report.
Chenjeri: You have the list of courses for approval. We have one more coming, and will try to send it to you by Mon, Dec 1st. We are planning to review all Exploration courses which were grandfathered into current Gen Ed system. Previously, we had Synthesis requirements but now we have the Integration (H, I, J) plus the Exploration goals. When we grandfathered the Exploration courses in, we did not fully make sure they aligned with the new goals. Now we plan to make sure that the Exploration courses align with the new Exploration goals. And also that the Foundations goals are integrated in as well.
How will we evaluate? Will have some easy-to-use templates plus examples from each strand. Committee members will work with faculty and departments and, if needed, will do workshops. We’ll begin with selected high enrollment courses in all three areas.
From 2006-2008, 17 new Exploration courses were added. Grandfathered in were 27 Humanities courses, 25 Soc. Science, and 22 Science, for a total of 91 courses (both types) in all.
I’ve mentioned to Dan Rubenson that University Studies Committee would like to meet with faculty to explain University Studies and these moves re: Gen Ed. Are there questions?
Sagmiller: Thanks to University Studies for hard work on this.
Rubenson: We hope to vote on these for next meeting?
Morgan: Yes, and to include the one more course still coming, by suspending the two week rule. I’d also like to commend the faculty for hard work doing to get information in to us. It’s taken a couple of years, but it’s going well and we appreciate what faculty are doing to show us what students are doing to demonstrate proficiencies.
8. Carpenter Grant Recommendations
Rubenson: These came from the Faculty Development Committee and were emailed around. Kay can answer any questions.
Ettlich: I move we suspend the two week rule and approve now.
Bustamante: Seconded.
Vote to suspend the two week rule to allow voting today on the Carpenter Grant recommendations. All in favor, no abstentions.
Ettlich: I move to approve the Carpenter Grant recommendations.
Morgan: Seconded.
Bustamante: Were there any issues or controversies?
Sagmiller: No. We used a careful weighting system, then averaged scores. We felt those travelling and presenting should be weighted more heavily, as should international conferences. We also considered a weighting system to support novice professors (they have lower income, higher need for publications), but did not formalize this yet. Note: Kate Cleland-Sipfle received just $127 since that’s all she asked for. Were $2 short, so took it off Bill Elliott’s amount, as he’s Chair.
Mraz: So you used all funds?
Sagmiller: Yes, we spent it all
Ettlich: Was anyone not funded at all?
Sagmiller: Everyone eligible was funded.
Vote to approve the Carpenter Grant recommendations. All in favor, no abstentions
Action Items
9. Elementary Education Degree Proposal
Rubenson: We discussed this proposal last meeting. Gerry McCain emailed some additional information a few hours ago, which not all of you may have gotten in time.
McCain: We’ve some reps here who wish to speak to the issues in my email: YoungHee Kim and William Greene.
Ettlich: How many didn’t get the email? Can we get a synopsis of it?
Thorpe: I know the gist of it, though I only saw it myself a few minutes ago. The question that came up last time included whether a student could take non-Education courses for electives. The answer is yes.
Elem Ed was originally approved as a licensure program; we’re now asking for a non-licensure option as well because there are people who come to us for a degree, both BA and MA, who don’t necessarily wish to do the licensure or they change their minds as they go along. International students are another example: they can use the degree but don’t need an Oregon licensure. This is at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Another example: people who wish to work in programs such as outdoor education, science, museums, libraries, head start, etc. Don’t want the license, but do want the education in Education. Some others who are opposed to the “public education system” still want the training but not the license because they will not work in the public system. It’s also true that some who are in our programs don’t finish the licensure part – sometimes via own their choices. May get to the teaching portion and realize they don’t fit, don’t want to deal with classroom management issues and so on. This happens too in the Elem Ed program: students may be too young now but may later decide to come back into the MAT. Or may decide on a different career track entirely. We also do identify some people that should not be teachers in any arena, and this provides an alternative track which we can counsel them into.
We presented this proposal to our consortium meeting last week-- this is the advisory group for our teacher education programs. Some one there commented that people going in to pharmaceutical sales can use educational training, as could folks who go into the medical field, industrial training etc - but would not need the licensure.
DeHay: It’s clearer to me now.
Sagmiller: If a student is not going for licensure, do you still evaluate them on the same five areas?
Thorpe: You mean the five teaching proficiencies mandated from Salem? If the student has no field experience, we omit this. But in academic areas the structure probably still fits-- for example, preparation for industrial training or pharmaceutical training etc.
Young Hee Kim is here, as is William Green – both can answer questions.
Rubenson: If the Senate wishes to move this forward, a motion might be put forth.
Sagmiller: I move to endorse the Elementary Education degree proposal from Education.
Thorpe: Seconded.
Ettlich: I appreciate the document sent by McCain, which clarifies that the primary population for this degree is not just those who cannot get through the existing program. That originally gave me concern, but now I think I can vote in favor.
Siem: Seems like the same amount of work is involved, both for the licensure and not.
Mraz: How many students will take this option?
Thorpe: Judging from the MAT, I’d say 5-10% of those in the program. We try to build in field experiences that will allow students to test whether they really want to be in the classroom, but many can’t tell early on. Some do self-select out later, maybe 5%.
Interest in this program may grow in future from those interested in museum work and other education opportunities. The growing trend towards home schooling, which has doubled in recent years in this area, may also lead to interest in this non-licensure degree.
Ettlich: Would a non-licensure degree work for charter schools?
Thorpe: Oregon requires 50% of teachers in a charter school to be licensed. Also, all charter schools must also go through a public agency, not through private agencies as is permitted in some states.
Mills: Any other programs like this in OUS? Might be a good recruitment tool.
Thorpe: No others in OUS
Vote to approve the non-licensure Elementary Education degree: All in favor, none opposed or abstaining.
10. Inter-institutional Faculty Senate (4:45-4:50)
Rubenson: Lets go ahead even though Lee Ayers is not here. Dan Wilson’s term is ending, so need another SOU representative for IFS. Great opportunity to network, travel to exciting meetings. Any IFS vets here? (None so identified.) We can nominate, self nominate, or postpone to a future meeting.